Analysis of pre-service teachers' attitude toward critical thinking in terms of several variables

Abstract

Critical thinking is a way of thinking that is skeptical, analytical, logical and independent. As an crucial component of education system, qualifications of teachers in critical thinking is important. The purpose of this study is to investigate first and third grade pre-service teachers' attitudes toward critical thinking ability in terms of several variables. As a commonly used descriptive research method, this study is a survey aiming to measure pre-service teachers' attitudes toward critical thinking ability through quantitative analyses. The participants are first and third grade pre-service teachers studying Primary Education and Turkish Education. Sample has 691 pre-service teachers (394 female and 297 male) as participants. In this study, Critical Thinking Attitude Scale (CTAS) developed by Saracaloglu and Yilmaz (2011) was used to data collection instrument. This scale has four dimensions and 19 items. According to results of analyses, pre-service teachers' attitudes toward critical thinking is differ from their university, programme, grade level and region. On the other hand, their attitudes toward critical thinking seem to be higher, favourably in participants who reads 21 or more books in one year.